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I G W. BRADLEY. Butter Pamkage.

Patented Oct. 12,1880.

UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

GILBERT V. BRADLEY, OF SUNDERLAND, VERMONT.

BUTTER-PACKAGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 233,195, dated October 12, 1880.

Application filed August 5), 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GILBERT W. BRADLEY, of the town of Sunderland, in the county of Bennington and State of Vermont, have invented an Improved Butter-Package, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improved means and appliances for packing butter in small packages for the retail trade, and is fully illustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawings, which constitute a part of this specification, whercin Figure l is a view of a side elevation of my improved package or box, and Fig. 2 a plan View of the same, showing a portion of covering of one side broken away for the purpose of exposing to view the overlapped ends of the wall or rim of the package and the mode of fastening the same.

My package consists of a rim or hoop, A, and two compound heads or covers, each composed ofa thin compressed veneer disk, 0, and a thicker external wood disk, B. Such rim or hoop may be of any desired shape, either prismatic or cylindrical; but as the best mode of carrying out my invention, I have herein described and illustrated the cylindrical form of body-piece as embodying more advantages than either a square, hexagonal, or other prismatic form.

The element of form not being of the essence of this invention, I have in detail described and illustrated but one form, as any other form suited to the tastes or needs of the person working the invention may be adopted without departing from the principles of the invention.

The rim A is made from thin veneers by cut ting the piece to proper dimensions and then passing it through a series of sets of rolls, of three to a set, whereby it is bent into tubular form under successively decreasing arcs and increasing pressures, and at the same time has its density materially increased, so that it is rendered less permeable by oils or fluids. Such process also diminishes the thickness of said rim and imparts to its exterior a very smooth surface. B y reason of the treatment which the material of the rim undergoes it is much better adapted to the purposes to which it is to be applied than wooden rims bent in the ordinary way. On account of the increased density so imparted to it the rim is rendered not only more impervious to the absorption ot'fluids, but essentially stronger and less liable to split, besides having the natural tendency of the bent wood to straighten out or straighten at the ends counteracted. After bending in the way set forth, the overlapped ends of the veneer rim are fastened in any substantial way, as by gluing, cementing, riveting, sewing, or otherwise. In the drawings the ends are shown as united by sewing, which, for many purposes, is preferable to either glue, cement, rivets, wire, or nails, inasmuch as the thread used in the sewing is not affected either by the salt or briny moisture of the butter, nor is any disagreeable taint or injury imparted to the contents of the package by the use of the sewed joint, as might be the case if either of the other mentioned fastening appliances were employed. A joint sewed with a thread also furnishes special facilities for opening the package, as a knife-blade may be inserted between the overlapping ends of the rim or body and the stitches severed, when the rim or band can readily be removed from the contents of the package, thus leaving the same in perfect form or condition and in presentable shape.

The disks 0 0 may be treated either between rolls or in a press between hot dies, to produce the before-mentioned qualities of density and smoothness, and, as well as the rim A, are usually made from substantially inodorous woods.

The external protecting-disks, B B, are considerably thicker than disks 0 G, in order to withstand the wear and tear of transportation and handling, as well as to furnish adequate material to receive the bite of the grapnel-hooks e e of the gripes by which the several parts are held together.

Disks B B may be made of any kind of wood or equivalent suitable material.

A double head composed of a thin inner disk of compressed inodorous wood and a thicker disk of ordinary material for external protection possesses advantages over a single thick head in the following particulars: Oily or greasy substances are not so readily absorbed by the outer disk when the porous communication is ICO serving a neater and decidedly cleaner exterior surface of the heads besides, the disk cover or head is less liable to warp, and consequently to split; but if, perchance, either disk should happen to check or split, the contents of the package do not become exposed to the action of the air or elements, and hence the contents undergo no deleterious change.

For clamping and confining the several parts of the package, as above described, I have provided several automatic spring clamps or gripes, (shown at D, Fig. 1.) This clamp is made from wireof suitable dimensions and strength, is bent at each end in the form of a hook, as shown, and midway between the hooks e c is bent in the form of a spiral coil having four or five turns, more or less, as seen atf, Fig. 1. Thus this clamp is nothing more nor less than a contractile coil-spring with a griping-hook at each extremity. It is made of such a length as to require some distention to make the terminal hooks embrace the top and bottom covers, as shown, but is of such strength that when it is sprung into place the retractile force of coil f will cause the points of the hooks e e to embed themselves into the substance of disks B B so firmly that considerable efi'ort is requisite to detach them.

My package is used by first filling the rim A with butter or any other material to the level of the edges of such rim, then applying disk-covers O 0, one to each side of the package, and overlaying them with disk-covers B B, preferably crossing the grain of the two adjacent pieces, as shown at B C, Fig. 2, and securing the whole in place by springing on or over the edges of the package two, three, or more of the springwire clamps, as shown in Fig. 1.

I claim as new 1. The described butter-package, consisting of a tubular rim, A, separate disk-heads B O B O, in combination with the retractile grapnel-clamps D, arranged in the manner described, for the purposes set forth.

2. The described wire clamp D, provided at its extremities with the grapnel-hooks 6 e, and the intermediate coil-spring, f, contractile in the direction of its axis,-substantially as described and set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereto subscribed my name this 26th day of July, A. D. 1879.

GILBERT W. BRADLEY.

In presence of- FRANKLIN Soo'rr, J. A. WARDELL. 

